is whats known on the internet as a MUD, a Multi User Dungeon. Within, players interact with other players in a role playing environment. Players collect equipment and money, usually by completing quests, killing monsters, or sometimes killing other players (which is called player killing [PK]). Lensmoor is one of the more innovative muds on the internet, as it is constantly being updated and revised.

As Lensmoor changes and becomes more complex, the mud (in my humble opinion) has become harder to learn when you are first starting out. Even thought there are special low level areas available to new players, some of the finer points are not too clear. So, I present to you, The Newbie's Guide to Lensmoor.

How Do I Join?

It is incredibly easy to set your computer up to connect to Lensmoor. Some people prefer to use whats known as a mud client such as Z-Mud to automate some procedures, but others like myself are content to use HyperTerminal or a straight telnet client. You can now access the Lensmoor Java Client off of the Lensmoor Home Page if you wish.

Choosing A Name

Lensmoor is set in a medieval/fantasy setting, and players are expected to stay within certain guidelines: 
We require names that fit the theme of this mud.
This mud is based in a medieval fantasy setting.

Specifically, this means no:
Offensive names (jerk, or worse)
Names composed of one or more words (Impaler, StrongArm, DarkSlayer)
Names from literature (Frodo, RobinHood, Wolverine)
Nonsense names (sadfasdf, IAmANewbie)

Forbidden names will be renamed at the convenience of the staff.
Basically, try and be creative, as you'll have your name for a long time.

Choosing A Race

When you are creating a new player, you will be asked which continent you wish to start on. Lensmoor is the more "civilized" continent, where Antrippa is a rough barren area which is not recommended for first time players.

At this time, there are eight different races available for new players. Take a moment to look at the different races, and consider how you want to play your character. If you want to be thief-like, you probably don't want to be an ent. Giant tree-people are not known for their stealth and agility :)

Great.... So Now What?

When you play at Lensmoor for the first time, you start in the Lensmoor Mud School. Even if you've played other muds before, take the time to go through the school. Make sure you read the signs and listen to your teachers. You can return to mud school by going directly down from the center of recall.

There's two very important things you must do upon your arrival in Chancy. First, buy a weapon. I recommend a sword or a dagger, as these seem to be the easiest to find. There is a weapons and armor shop one room east of the fountain in Chancy. Buy your weapon and some armor.

Now that you have your weapon, you're almost ready to hack and slash your way through the known world. Of course, you better learn how to use your newly found weapon first. There is a teacher one north and one east (n,e) from the fountain.

When you are at the teacher, you can type "practice list" (or "prac list" for short) to see what skills the teacher can teach you.

Fox G. Love's most wanted skill list
Levels 1-5
Level 1
  • dagger
  • sword
Level 2
  • armor
  • shield block
  • cure light
Level 3
  • dodge
  • parry
Level 5
  • animal friendship
  • invisibility
Now this doesn't mean you only need these skills. But I recommend practicing these skills before practicing, say.... floating disc. These are spells and skills that will be useful from the beginning. When you train your stats, I recommend training your wisdom first so you get more practices (up until level 8), then strength and constitution.

What Are These Letters For?

You will see a letter in parenthesis in front of every creature. These are quick ways to tell how hard a monster is. Type help consider for a complete list. Basically (e) is an easy monster, (c) might be a challenge, (h) type monsters will prolly hurt you, and (M) means the gods will mourn your passing. You can not attack mobs with (X) before them, as they are either safe from attack, or in a safe room.

I'm Lost, How Do I Get Home?

The quickest and easiest way to go from the great outdoors to your hometown (which starts off as Chancy) is with the recall command. In most areas, the recall command will whisk you away back to safety, for the cheap cost of 10% of your movement points. There are some areas from which you can not recall. When you try to recall, you'll see the message "The gods have forsaken you." Also, if you are cursed, you can not recall. In these cases you have to find your own way back out of the area.

You can change your home town, so when you recall, you go to a different home town. When you find a town you would like to call home, type hometown followed by the name of the town you are in. So, if you would like Tome to be your new hometown, go to Tome, and while standing in the city, type hometown tome. Its handy to set your hometown to somewhere other than New Lensmoor, as you can always recall to New Lensmoor by typing recall lensmoor. This way, if you have your hometown a far distance away from lensmoor, you can travel back and forth quickly and easily.

The easiest way to find your way around is to but a map, such as the map of New Lensmoor at the supply shop, 3w,n,w of recall. There are also maps available on the Lensmoor web page.

Where Can I Get A Better Weapon?

You can find weapons either in stores, in the donation area of Lensmoor (e,s of recall), and on monsters. You can find out which weapon is better by using the compare command to compare weapon A with weapon B. You can also find a man s,s,e,s,e from recall who will identify your items for a price. When you get a piece of equipment identified, you will see something like the following: 

Object 'condor legplates' is type armor, extra flags none.
Weight is 4, level is 45 Condition: 100%.
Can be worn: take legs
Armor:          P:22  B:22  S:22  M:22
Modified armor: P:22  B:22  S:22  M:22
condor legplates is made of steel.
Affects dexterity by 3.
Ok, on the second line you'll see the level of the equipment. When you start the game, you are lucky enough to be able to wear equipment that is 10 levels above your level, up until level 20.

So: At level 1, you can wear equipment up to level 11 effectively.
At level 2, you can wear equipment up to level 12 effectively.
At level 11, you can wear equipment up to level 21 effectively.
At level 20, you can wear equipment up to level 30 effectively.
And for levels 21-30, you can wear equipment up to level 30 effectively.
At level 30, you can only effectively wear equipment that is your level or less.

Now I said "effectively" which brings us to another point which confuses a lot of new players. The first line shows how well the equipment will protect you under ideal situations (i.e. the equipment is your level or less than your level.) The modified armor values are how well you can expect it to perform based on your level. Wearing eq that is not appropriate for your level will not work as well. You also won't gain any additional benefits from wearing the armor, such as the above item's +3 to dexterity bonus.

Weapons work in a similar way. Make sure you are using a weapon that is right for your level, and the correct size.

How Do I Get More Practices / Trains?

Practices let you learn new skills and spells. Trains let you improve your attributes (strength, intelligence, etc) and your hit points and your mana. Up untill level 8, you get extra practices each time you level. After level 8, you get about 1 practice every other level. The number of practices and the number of trainings you get is dependent on your wisdom (especially if you're level 7 or under) and the amount of experience you need to level.

Using the setexp command, you can see how much experience points you need for each level. The higher you set your setexp, the more trains you get per level. At 10,000 exp per level, you get about three trains per level. The higher the number, the better character you will have. Its tempting to set your number lower, but in the end, 10k per level is worth it. You can also gain more practices by questing. You can convert twenty-five quest points to one practice.

How Do I Quest?

Questing is an important part of Lensmoor. Each time you complete a quest within the specified time limit, you receive a certain number of quest points. If you are questing by yourself, a successful quest will gain you between one and seven quest points, and some gold. You can typically find the quest demon (A Demonic Being) 6 north, 6 west of the center of New Lensmoor. If you're having trouble finding him, try the scout command: scout demon.

To receive a quest, find one of the quest beings and use the quest request command. The first type of quest is to kill an monster in a specific area and in a specific room. When you are in the area, look for a monster with [TARGET] in its title. After you've killl the monster, return to the quest being and use the quest complete command to receive your award.

The second type of quest is to subdue a mob (a monster). You can toggle subdue mode by typing subdue. You won't kill the monster, you'll only knock it unconcious. After its knocked out, type bind mobname where mobname is, um.... the name of the mob you knocked out. Be careful not to use poisoned weapons, because people don't kill monsters, poisons do. after you've bound the mob, it will follow you. Return to the quest being and type quest complete.

The third type is to consult with a creature. You're given the name and location of a creature, and you need to find it. Look for the matching mob, with an (X) in front of it. You need to find the specific mob.

The fourth type is to retrieve an item for the quest being. The being will request an item, with its last known location. Go to the area specified, find the item, and go back to the being and type quest complete. Its not nice to take other people's quest items-- If you see a charcoal globe and you're not questing for it, leave it be. Some mobs may pick up items they find lieing around. If you have practiced the peek skill, you can check to see if it is in a mob's inventory. If so, you'll have to kill it to get the item.

How Do I Make People Hate Me?

Thats easy. We don't hate you because you're beautiful.... its because you're acting like a twink.

Getting Along With Immortals

Not all players, upon becoming an Immortal, become egomanics crazed with power. Many of them were born like that <G>.

Seriously though, try not to taunt the Imms too much. They're there to help, but sometimes you might end up with a lightning bolt in the ol' stamper if you're not careful. Theres been at least one instance of a player asking a certain god for healing only to get the 50,000 volt handshake.

This page is maintained by Foxglove as an independent project and is in no way operated, maintained, approved, etc by the Lensmoor Organization.